I hadn’t seen Snow White for years until I watched it to write this first post. I always remembered her as stiff, conservative, and weak with little to no personality. Her voice annoyed me, and I couldn’t remember anything I liked about her.

I have since changed my mind. She’s not flawless, but she has a classic story – a model princess motif. It’s clear how she paved the way for every princess that followed. Snow may just be the kindest princess we have. She remains joyful and kind to everyone she encounters, from a murderous Evil Queen to a huntsman literally trying to cut out her heart. She displays selfless love to the dwarves, and to everyone around her.

But despite her kindnesses, we must ask an important question:

who’s the most tragic and magic one of all??

Snow usually represents the weakness associated with women. Her skills include cooking and cleaning, and she relies on a boy to save her. Girlie legit falls in love with a guy who just hops over a fence and says he loves her. She wants love more than all the diamonds the dwarves could mine.

But the worst part is she is waiting for him to come save her in the woods. As she sits in the dwarves cottage, she sings about him coming to save her. She is not locked up in this cottage. She’s not chained there. It was literally just her first option of refuge. She could easily save herself and continue to run or make a life with the dwarves but she is content to be a sitting duck and hope that her prince finds her before the Queen (spoiler – he doesn’t). And when he does save her with true loves kiss, she abandons the dwarves for a practical stranger. Love is wonderful, but don’t let it steal you away from the beautiful life you built all on your own.

But just one bite and I realized she truly is the fairest one of all. Snow experiences some insane trauma but she continues to power through and be kind no matter what. After the Huntsman saves her life and sweetly doesn’t cut out her heart, she runs into the forest and enters a full blown panic attack. The forest morphs into monsters and scary creatures reflecting the terror of a life she is running from. She is so terrified and overwhelmed that she faints and cries. RELATABLE, SNOW.

This moment of darkness and total shutdown is so relatable, but also where she is the strongest. She takes a moment to cry, but then she sits up, and figures out how she is going to get herself out of this situation. She realizes that she can’t stay in the woods forever and must find a solution.

When all is dark, she fills her world with sunshine, and we must too.

She realizes that no matter how hard she is wishing for her prince to come, she is the one responsible for her own happiness, and rallies quickly to improve her terrible situation. We have to do that all on our own, too. When Snow gets up and moves on, she shows us how. She uses her wits, she asks for help, even if it is from woodland creatures, and she chooses to seek happiness and a solution.

Snow demonstrates selflessness and overwhelming kindness to everyone, and the power associated with such kindness. Her kindness influences everyone else around her, except a wicked queen, to act the same. She is slow to judge, and believes the best in people. While this sometimes makes her too gullible and later proves her downfall, we could all learn from the way she accepts people for who they are and finds the good in them first.

While she has a bad rep for her homemaking, she is still a testament to the balance that women add to the world. She is nurturing and selfless and caring, everything the Dwarves are lacking. There is power in femininity, and without her influence, the dwarves are kind of falling apart on their own. With the addition of Snow’s extreme femininity, their home becomes the symbiotic example of a happy home. While overall I think her invasion of their space is more tragic, the balance she brings to their lives is a certain kind of magic we all need.

Her most tragic quality of waiting for a prince to save her directly contradicts her most magical one of making happiness, sunshine, and magic all on her own. If you’re creating your own happiness, you shouldn’t also be waiting on a prince to save you. Seeing the way these magically mirror each other, I think Snow’s tragic is more the impression of the chauvinistic society she was created in. Men thinking she’s a princess so naturally the prince will save her. That’s what happens in a fairytale. So can we even blame Snow for this choice? Maybe the magic mirror would reveal a certain set of writers behind its glass instead of a princess…

Famed is thy beauty, but hold, a lovely revelation I see:

We do not need a prince to save us. We shouldn’t abandon our friends for a boy. We shouldn’t insert ourselves into intimate situations without permission. When we find ourselves surrounded by scary trees and darkness, take a minute to be sad, but then rally and find the solution like Snow. Don’t give into the temptation of waiting on someone else to make you happy, no matter how delicious the offer or gooseberry pie. We are responsible for our own happiness, filling our worlds with sunshine, and creating our own magic.